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Israeli medical workers infected with corona by hospital ventilator

The Vapotherm ventilators expel old air by releasing aerosol, and it’s thought that the sheer number of ventilators operating at once caused the virus to spread in the air of the ward.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

A doctor and two nurses working in Ichilov Hospital’s coronavirus ward were infected with coronavirus by aerosol released from a ventilator used by a patient, reported Israel Hayom on Saturday evening.

An investigation by the Tel Aviv hospital found that eight ventilators were in use simultaneously in the coronavirus ward where the staff were working.

The ventilators in that particular ward, called Vapotherm, function differently than traditional ventilators. More comfortable for the patient, oxygen is delivered via a nasal cannula rather than a mask or intrusive tube.

The Vapotherm ventilators expel old air by releasing aerosol, and it’s thought that the sheer number of ventilators operating at once caused the virus to spread in the air of the ward.

“We have almost no infections within the coronavirus wards. This is a rare occurrence,” Dr. Yael Paran, the director of the epidemiology unit at Ichilov, told Israel Hayom.

“These are wards with an air intake system and negative pressure, wards where medical staff enter with ‘space suits’…and take all precautions.”

“When we investigated, we found that these were employees who were very strict about procedures outside of work and that none of their family members were infected. It was a sequence of incidents that happened last week and it lit a red light for us.

“Infections in the coronavirus ward is something we are very afraid of.”

The hospital has implemented a new policy to limit the number of Vapotherm ventilators used at one time in a coronavirus ward to six.

“We hypothesize, and there is partial support for this in the literature as well, that when one crosses a certain threshold of aerosol formation, it becomes [too much] for the ventilation and protection systems,” said Dr. Paran.

A medical center in northern Israel reported a similar phenomenon several weeks ago.

It was reported that several medical staff, who were working in a coronavirus ward with multiple venitalors operating at the same time, were infected with the virus.